CAM Molestation Issue

[temporal1]

2. My confidence in CAM is basically the same as it was in 2018.
4. My perceptions about CAM are significantly formed through social media and public media articles.

Regarding #4, this would be largely contained to what i have read and read on MD-MN.

i agree with
Page 141 / http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... start=1400

Sunlight is the best disinfectant!

i really-truly try to avoid idol worship. it’s bedrock Christianity.
from this starting place, i am assured, no earthly thing, not man, denom, institution, thought, is above failure.

failures are heartbreaking.
but, when our hearts are shattered, maybe the first question is to ask ourselves, “did we expect perfection?” (idol worship?) because, that’s a grave problem. sin.

typically there aren’t just 2 choices, perfect or evil.
possibly, this type of thinking reflects idol worship, which, of course, we don’t want to admit.
because, in our heads, we know idol worship is a grave sin. our hearts meander.

what is Jesus’ purpose in the “disinfectant of sunlight” (confession+repentance)?
i believe it’s to cleanse, and restore - to Him. (restore to Him, does NOT mean enabling sins!)

OP Subject line: My perception is -
Just as i believed in the 1990’s, when the Catholic priest abuse scandal blew up,
my thoughts were, “Ok. This is horrible. Bring it into the full+harsh light of day.”
Confess. Repent. Submit. Obey.

Not being Catholic, my outside perception was, this is the path (the Vatican to the priests) would teach to every parishioner (right?) .. “Walk the Talk.”

Walk the Talk, because, this is The Way. This is the ultimate best - for ALL concerned.
Jesus is not offering a “gotcha” moment, or devious trick. He is not offering harm.

He’s offering Eternal Salvation.

20+ years later, the struggle over predatory carnal sins continues.
in God’s time, 20 years is (not what it is to us).

When sin blows up in our faces, as it will, we would do well to face it, learn from it,
and, “go and sin no more.”

2 Peter 3:9
https://biblehub.com/2_peter/3-9.htm

8Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice:
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

9The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

10But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.…

my 2 cents.

[Ernie]

Not interested in [being] given a story in private that can be changed or denied or misunderstood.

Interesting.
It is my understanding that the reason CAM is hesitant to publish more than what they already have, is because people pour over their statements, criticize what they wrote, criticize for not saying more or doing more, and sometimes accuse them of deceit whenever they were trying to be truthful at the time of the press release. Also, they have often had something written up and ready to send out, and then new information came in that painted a different picture.
They have had much better results talking to people face-to-face, whenever people in good faith are contacting CAM to simply learn CAM's perspective on the matter before drawing their own conclusions. Hillperson for example explained earlier about an interaction with CAM leadership at Open House and how she felt about CAM afterwards.

[RZehr]

They are in a bad situation for sure. But please think about the unreasonableness of taking the position that supporters should initiate a phone call to get updates. That is bizarre beyond belief. No organization does that.
For one thing, you will have countless different people calling and hearing something different, and I suppose more than one person on CAMs side doing the telling. That is a formula for a ton of variation.
Now multiply that variation by however many times there is something new to report. One person may call in once a day, the next once every other month. Great way to ensure scrambled messages, with different information coming in on their investigations and out to hundreds of callers.
It looks to me like this is the same sort of indecisive, mistake prone decision making that got them into this problem. This isn’t to say that all the leaders hearts are in the wrong place, but clearly they need to make better decisions. If I was in charge at CAM, I’d send a mailer update every month until this was settled, and also place it online. I don’t see them doing anything like that. By not sending mailers, I feel like they are intentionally keeping the Old Orders somewhat in the dark on this. Mail them updates. Build trust back.
But I don’t want to clutter your thread.

[Ernie]

They are in a bad situation for sure. But please think about the unreasonableness of taking the position that supporters should initiate a phone call to get updates. That is bizarre beyond belief. No organization does that.

True, but many of CAM's supporters don't want or expect an organization like everyone else.

If I was in charge at CAM, I’d send a mailer update every month until this was settled, and also place it online.

Same here. I have encouraged something like this repeatedly.

By not sending mailers, I feel like they are intentionally keeping the Old Orders somewhat in the dark on this.

This is one of those speculations that I don't think we should be making. CAM has offered in their newsletter to mail the online statements to anyone who requests it. They have been mailing out a lot.

[RZehr]

People shouldn’t have to ask for the mailers. Do they actually want people to know or do they not want people to know what they are doing?
Speculation breeds in darkness and ignorance. If they don’t like the speculation, they need to be proactively transparent. It’s not a complicated concept at all.
It might not necessarily the amount of updates per se, but a tone deaf “call me” that gives a horrible impression of them and their decision making abilities.

I guess more than anything, I now have the impression that they are hiding other stuff, they are not interested in transparency at all cost, instead they are following the batten down the hatches method, protecting someone high up.

If that is the wrong impression, don’t ask me to call them every month or week. Show me. I didn’t have to call them to find out about any scandal. That was high profile enough that I didn’t need to. If they want to stop the speculation, their response needs to be high enough profile that we can actually see it. They do know how to make people hear and see what they want. They have the ability. While it is great if they are willing to answer a phone call and talk with anyone about it, that is not the way to to do. Make people call them if they want to know what’s going on? Don’t ask me to call them, I find that offensive. I don’t have to call them to ask if they have any needs, because they are more than willing to spread the word when they need money.

Why not close down the bill boards, and just have people call the head office if they want talk to someone about a need? Because they know that no one would. This organization knows how to market their projects. I think someone in a high place at CAM is making some bad calls on this case. I have no one there in mind at all. Just looking at how they are mishandling this and that’s the only thing that makes sense to me looking on.

Yes, we are unbelievably long suffering and forgiving. A local business man says we operate in a bubble, not reality. I know the people in the field who have not yet been exposed as a JMast are doing great things. But my trust in the leadership is lower. I don’t know that cutting funds off is needed or if better results will be just keeping pressure on Berlin leadership.

[RZehr]

Today was a CAM-West open house here in Oregon. David and Phil Troyer were there, and I’m told David did say something about this JMast deal publicly, so kudos to that. I was not there, so can’t say what was said.

[Wade]

I am incredibly surprised anyone interested in evangelism or reaching out with the compassion of Christ would not recognize how much they are willing to push people away (who they need to support their ministry) by saying we can contact them for information...

[mike]

It is my understanding that the reason CAM is hesitant to publish more than what they already have, is because people pour over their statements, criticize what they wrote, criticize for not saying more or doing more, and sometimes accuse them of deceit whenever they were trying to be truthful at the time of the press release. Also, they have often had something written up and ready to send out, and then new information came in that painted a different picture.

It surprises me that to this day, CAM still apparently does not have a clear enough picture of what has happened with the Jeriah Mast situation, even after he has been sentenced and imprisoned, to make a coherent, consistent statement in its official newsletter to its donors.

[joshuabgood]

A simple apology, sans lawyered up language, for fostering, as an institution, at high leadership levels, a culture that sent a known pedophile to work with children in missions, is frankly, in order. And yet, wanting. The wording of all public documents is very specific to never naming or accepting institutional responsibility. The closest was the statement that said we are sorry "our guy' did thus and such. Still, notably absent was language seeking forgiveness for the institutional negligence that sent him there, repeatedly, and the lack of appropriate oversight while he was there.

Then, simply hiring a third party investigation...would have been the right way to move forward.

I haven't heard any explanation yet for why either of these simple steps weren't done, at least not publicly.

Personally while I respect Ernie and many other employees of CAM, I cannot support them if the above steps are never taken. It will be hard even for me to attend events like REACH if they are featured without opening themselves up to a third party organization. Or issuing a public apology.

[RZehr]

Okay Ernie, I took your advise. It’s easier to be a keyboard activist than have hard, real conversations asking hard questions, isn’t it?

Had a talk with David Troyer tonight. I feel a lot of respect for him. And by extension my respect and confidence in CAM has gone up to.
- With regard to the lack of updates, there has been so little to update that is why they haven’t. On the Haiti front, they are working with 3rd party to do what they can, but as has been mentioned the political environment is making it more difficult.
- On the internal investigation, they are working to get a 3rd party investigation.
My understanding from DT is that some of them had a bit of hesitation over GRACE because it is not an Anabaptist based organization. CAM did not feel comfortable hand picking private individuals to do the investigation either, so they have asked a certain 3rd party (did not say who, I didn’t ask) individual to create a team to do it. This person has not yet been given the green light from his board to take on the investigation.
I asked if there has been feet dragging and hesitancy on the part of CAM because there are more skeletons they are afraid will come out. Such as either another leader being protected or another scandal in another country, or anything like these, and he said absolutely not.
- I asked him if he is aware of any financial impropriety of any sort domestically involving kickbacks or anything like that, and he said not at all.
- I asked if they are refraining on mailing updates on all this because they don’t want people without social media access to know the updates. The answer was emphatic no.
He thought that they did mail one update out, and seemed to see some value in ensuring that whatever was posted online, was mailed as well. Said he would check about that.
-I said in my opinion, CAM excels at communicating their needs and in organization, and that the lack of communication on this subject from them looks strange and out of character. He seemed to understand.

He said I was welcome to call him anytime, but gave me three names (James B Mullet, Bobby Miller, Weston Showalter) at CAM who are working more directly on this and might be better equipped to answer specifics. Said I’d probably need to leave a message with the folks at the office for which person I wanted to talk with, and that person would call back as soon as they could.